Since, by the time they enter school, children have developed a major portion of their spoken language system by being immersed in language, it seems probable that they could also apply these rules to the orthographic system if they were immersed in reading. Thus, learning to read by reading would allow the general formation of rules that could later apply to more specific levels at later stages of development. One hundred three kindergarten children participated in a study of assisted reading to test the validity of this hypothesis. Ten teachers, trained in treatment methods, were the sole administrators of the program. Results indicated that generally, for pupils of high, medium, and low ability, a supplementary period of instruction in experimental treatment methods produced a greater increase in reading behavior than a comparable exposure to more formal and phonetically oriented instruction. In addition, those children in the experimental group were more able to use their set for diversity, or the ability to process diverse kinds of sentences than were controls. (KS)